” Thousands of tax workers will stage strike action in separate disputes over jobs and privatisation of services and a “punitive” new sickness absence system.

Members of the Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) at HM Revenue and Customs will walk out for three hours from 12 noon in protest at plans to hand “sensitive data” to private companies, which they fear will lead to job cuts.

The union said around 20,000 of its members will be involved in the industrial action as it steps up opposition to a planned year-long trial using private staff in two contact centres in Bathgate, Scotland and Lillyhall, Cumbria.

…

PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: “Our members have very serious concerns about this creeping privatisation into HM Revenue and Customs and, as well as the threat to their jobs, they do not think such sensitive data should be handed over to private firms.

“This is also happening at a time when senior managers are trying to bring in an unnecessarily punitive and counter-productive sick policy that seeks to penalise people for being ill, rather than support them.” “

Like this:

“Fat cat Brussels bureaucrats are threatening to strike over plans to make them work eight hours a day – because they say it will wreck their ‘family life’.

EU bosses are asking civil servants – among the best paid public officials in the world – to stay behind in the office for an extra half hour a day to save costs.

The move would take their five-day working week from 37-and-a-half hours up to just 40 hours.

This would still be less than the 41-and-a-half hours undertaken by the average British full-time worker.

But unions representing EU civil servants will refuse to consider any extension to their working week, saying longer hours would affect the ‘attractiveness’ of their jobs.

Critics demanded unions representing 55,000 EU staff – 1,322 of whom are British – ‘get real’ over the modest change to working hours at a time when millions all over the continent are losing their jobs or having to work longer.

The European Commission has demanded the cost-cutting move following mounting pressure from national governments to cut Brussels’ administrative budget.

” Unions across the country have said they are planning a wide range of measures to ensure that everyone knows they are undertaking a wide range of measures for their members.

Unison, Unite, the GMB and the Fire Brigades Union will consult members about the best way to draw attention to all the hard work the union does on their behalf.

RMT member Simon Matthews told us, “You’ve got to remember that many these union bosses have six-figure salary packages, which you don’t get to keep if you’re not being very, very loud.”

“Bob Crow hasn’t been in the news for a few weeks now, so us members are starting to wonder if he’s worth the money.”

“I imagine we’ll be centrally involved in all the attention seeking before the week is out.”

Unions plan strikes

Unions claim they have been left with no choice but to implement the wide ranging attention seeking measures after their members insisted in living longer, making long-term pension provision no longer viable.

As one Union representative explained, “I don’t care if my members are going to live to be 120, you will keep paying them the same way you always have.”

“And if you don’t,we’ll sqweam and sqweam and sqweam until we are sick.” “

“Over 5 million public sector workers are muttering about strike action.

Go ahead, you greedy, grasping, selfish people.

This action is not about a “living wage”, is it? No. It’s about having the taxpayer guarantee your pension. Well guess what? This taxpayer is fed up to the back teeth of parting company with ever-increasing amounts of his hard-earned coin to ensure that YOU have a great retirement. I won’t be living high on the hog either. But here’s the thing: I already know that. I already know that I will struggle mightily, just like millions of pensioners already do. Do you hear them whining? Me neither. Nowhere near as much as they should be whining. They worked harder than you do, they did not trot around with a sense of entitlement. They did not take absolutely every second off sick that they could get away with in each and every year of their employment. In fact, in the last 15 years we find that public sector workers take off more time due to “illness” than any other sector. Four times as much, you idle gits.

There are 5 million of you. 5,000,000. FIVE MILLION.

WTF do you all do? In amongst your number are unwanted administrators, unrelenting jobsworths, unnecessary Outreach Coordinators For The Emancipation Of One-Legged Blind Slovakian Lesbians With Learning Disabilities With A Penchant For Stamp-Collecting, and the like. I am tired of working like a dog to support you. I’m not even going to get into those lazy bastards that can, but absolutely will not work. Chip in, or piss off. It’s that simple. 2.5 million of you right there. This gets worse! I am supporting 7.5 million of you now. FFS!

We know where we are with the idle and the indolent.

But you, you with your hands out, you are something else.

Newsflash: I don’t want you to earn anything, far less give you a pay-rise, a golden handshake or a gold-plated pension. You don’t deserve any of those things. Wake up and smell the reality: you are not owed a damn thing. You are responsible for yourself. I should not be forced to carry you.

YOU are a drain on the economy. YOU produce nothing. YOU do not add to my life but YOU do subtract from it. Because of YOU I am penalised. I have to part company with over 80% of my salary every year. If it isn’t wasted on you, paying your wages while you sit on your arse at home claiming to be “stressed”, it is wasted on the prosecution of illegal wars, or is spent on the Commons wine cellar, or iPads for binmen, and a thousand million other useless things.

I have some sympathy. You grew up being taught that if you wanted anything, all you had to do was put out your hand. So that you weren’t offended, someone would thrust my cash in your grasping little hand. You are entitled, are you not? I blame the last government for this feckless, irresponsible notion, and I blame the current government for not getting this notion out of your heads. I blame your parents for allowing you to nurture the idea that the world owes you a living. It does not. I blame you for never growing up and realising that to get ahead, you have to sacrifice some things. The very first thing you have to get rid of is that imaginary bubble that you think will keep you safe and snug and warm. The world is a harsh place, it is time you got to grips with that.

Your government is the criminal in all of this. They are the ones who tax everything that moves, and just to be sure, they tax everything that doesn’t. They think OUR money is theirs, and what’s worse, so do YOU.

And in amongst you are true heroes: hard-working nurses and doctors, dedicated and caring teachers, brave Fire & Rescue workers, courageous Forces personnel and yes, even good coppers. I do not begrudge those people anything. (I’d prefer to pay a local tax to fund the people that stand by ready to help me rather than fling a big chunk into a central pot, which is badly managed, but other than that, I agree they are necessary).

It’s the pen-pushers, the pecksniffs, the bureaucrats, the tobacco wardens, the traffic wardens, plastic cops, all of you with made-up job titles, and several million other wasters that stick in my craw. I need none of you.

None.

Got that?

When you dick-heads go on strike no-one will notice. Least of all me.

Hopefully, your pathetic government will realise that it could shave down the public sector “work” force and the taxpayers will be far better off.

But hey, while you are on strike, you don’t get paid, m’kay? I will expect a full rebate for the “services” you withdrew. You don’t provide, so you get no pay. I get no services, so I will not pay for them. How do you like them apples?